Devotional…advice

I’m sure you’re way better than I am about being in the Word. I mean, you get up at 4am to make sure it’s the very first thing you do to start your day EVERY day, right? Even on Saturdays (of course)! And you read for a full hour, outlining the passage, rewriting it in your own words, and then typing it all word for word to help you “memorize the Bible in a year,” don’t you?

Yeah, me neither.

So often, any spiritual discipline (and that includes reading God’s Word daily!) can be seen as an “all or nothing” type of deal. Either we do it perfectly…or we don’t do it at all. At least that’s how it has often been in my life.

But over the past few years, I’ve started to change that view, thankfully. After all, when we do read the Bible, we read that no one except Jesus is perfect. So logically we know we won’t do stuff perfectly anyway. And just because we’re not perfect doesn’t mean we can give up. (At least I haven’t read that anywhere in God’s Word.)

Look at it this way: ideally, having a full breakfast of homemade pancakes (with fresh strawberries and homemade whipped cream), bacon, eggs, and fresh-squeezed orange juice might be the best way to fill you up in the morning. I’m not sure about you, but I can’t remember when I last had time to make the full spread for breakfast…or even actually had all of the ingredients at the same time. Usually it’s more like toast and coffee as I’m running out the door. But the point is, just because I don’t have the habit of making the full deal every morning doesn’t mean I just skip breakfast from now on.

So, you may not have an hour before you have to leave for work or school. So what? You can find five minutes for a “quick bite” of God’s Word, can’t you? You don’t even know if you own a highlighter, let alone have marked up your Bible. But that doesn’t mean you can’t put a bookmark (that Taco Bell receipt will do!) in your Bible to come back to another time. Start with where you’re at.

The thing I think you’ll find (insert the voice of experience here) is that once you start nibbling on God’s Word, your appetite for it will grow. You’ll want more and more. And as that appetite grows, a miraculous thing will happen—you’ll suddenly find you have time you never had before to be in God’s Word on a daily basis! Trust me on this one.

Don’t even know where to start? I recommend reading through Romans 12 every day for a month. Try different translations from time to time (www.biblegateway.com is a great source). Maybe look into trying to memorize a verse or two from the chapter (www.scripturetyper.com can help you with that). But no matter what you do or how long you devote to it each day, open your heart and mind to truly hearing from your Maker as you read…and reread…His words. You might just find them to be life-changing…